ALWAYS GREAT TO HEAR FROM HANK

Thanks to Neil for these great Hank quotes about the state of the Yankee pitching staff...

"I want him as a starter and so does everyone else, including him, and that is what we are working toward and we need him there now," Steinbrenner told the New York Times. "There is no question about it, you don't have a guy with a 100-mile-per-hour fastball and keep him as a setup guy. You just don't do that. You have to be an idiot to do that."

"The mistake was already made last year switching him to the bullpen out of panic or whatever," Steinbrenner told the newspaper. "I had no say in it last year and I wouldn't have allowed it. That was done last year, so now we have to catch up. It has to be done on a schedule so we don't rush him."

"I think once Hughes and Kennedy get plenty of starts and get Joba back, and with [Chien-Ming] Wang and [Andy] Pettitte, we will be fine," Steinbrenner told The Times.

"[Mussina] just needs to learn how to pitch like [45-year-old Phillies pitcher] Jamie Moyer,"

In the offseason, if you remember, Hank was all for acquiring two-time Cy Young award winner Johan Santana, but we all know how that turned out.

"The starting rotation is not what I would have chosen at the beginning of the year, but that is not a big news flash to anyone,"